SINGAPORE: A new student at Admiralty Secondary School was allegedly assaulted by one of his classmates, who was said to have hit him over the head with a water bottle on Jan 7. The injured 12-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital to be treated for a head wound.
The police have been called in to investigate the matter, and the 12-year-old boy who allegedly caused the injury, as well as the school itself, are assisting with the investigations, news reports say.
The public first learned about the incident through a Facebook post by the injured boy’s uncle, Jwewny Goh, on the Complaint Singapore public group page. Mr Goh wrote that on his nephew’s fourth day at Admiralty Secondary, their family received a call from the school letting them know that the boy had sustained a “minor cut” but an ambulance had been called because of it.
He went on to write that the cut on the boy’s head was 4 to 5 cm in length and 7 to 8 mm deep and needed specialist stitches. Furthermore, the hospital told the family that more assessments, such as a CT scan, might be needed. However, because of risks due to the boy’s young age, they would need to wait 72 hours before fully evaluating his condition.
The uncle said his nephew told him he had been hit on the head repeatedly with a metal water bottle. However, according to a Mothership report, the bottle in question had been made of plastic and not metal.
Mr Goh expressed disappointment with how the school handled the incident, although he noted that its discipline master, Kenny Wang, had “showed empathy and took the matter seriously”.
“No parent should have to see their child suffer such trauma, especially in a place meant to be safe,” he wrote.
In a Jan 8 (Wednesday) update to his post, he wrote that his nephew had been discharged from the hospital and given hospitalization leave until Jan 14 for his next medical review. He also expressed concern over the emotional toll the incident has taken on the boy.
Meanwhile, Channel NewsAsia quoted the school as saying that it is closely monitoring the injured boy’s wellbeing and that it would mete out the “necessary disciplinary action” to the other boy involved in the incident.
“We understand the anxieties of family members and remind all to remain respectful in their interactions with school staff,” the school added. /TISG
Read also: Do Singapore schools have a bullying problem? Some Singaporeans think so